Vegetarian Taco Salad

I eat a lot of salads, like a lot. Basically, I eat rabbit food for lunch as a way to justify eating sweets for dessert. I figure it’s a fair trade off. I tend to get bored with my salads because no matter what you do to them or what you put in them they are really just a salad. Meanwhile I could have the exact same ice cream with the exact same toppings everyday for weeks straight and for some reason that never gets old. I love food so I want to try to keep every meal as exciting as possible, which is why I’m always on the hunt for new salad recipes. I found this vegetarian taco salad and it’s like eating a healthy taco in a bowl!

In a medium bowl, combine the black beans, corn, carrots, tomatoes, avocado, jalapeno, and shredded cheese and then place on top of the salad greens.

Top the salad with the dressing.

If you like tacos then you’ll love this salad. Tomatoes. Check. Lettuce. Check. Cheese. Check. Everybody builds their tacos differently but those are the essentials, right? There’s no meat in this taco salad but it’s still packed with protein from the black beans. We’ll pretend those are the meat here. Plus, I’ve added some other fun stuff that’s notorious in Mexican cuisine, jalapenos, avocados, and corn. There are so many great textures and flavors going on here!

The homemade dressing is full of southwestern flavors and is a perfect topping for a salad.

This is a great make-ahead salad (just leave the dressing off until you are ready to eat it). I made it on Sunday to bring to work with me during the week. Even the avocado chunks didn’t get that scary which was pleasantly surprising.

One of the best things that I love about salads is that you can substitute or omit ingredients and still end up with something delicious. If you don’t want the heat, then skip the jalapenos. If you have white beans in the cabinet, then swap out the black ones for those. I love the mix of flavors in this salad but you can customize yours however you want.

When we were vegan for a few months mexican food saved me! The flavors are still so great, even though there’s no meat and it’s easy to leave out the dairy. This salad sounds delicious! And I totally feel you about eating “rabbit food” for lunch so you don’t feel guilty about eating dessert. I do the same thing!

Asheley and I love taco salads! We eat them at least once a week… normally we send out for them from a local Mexican take-out joint (because we are lazy, haha), but now we have no excuse not to make them at home!

Mmm this looks like my kind of salad! I especially love all the spices in the dressing! I love any type of salad with avocado or with nuts and fruit. So good! And I definitely eat healthy during the day so I can eat dessert at night : )

We have similar lunch mindsets. I’ll have scrambled egg whites and a cup of soup, followed up by a decadent Ghirardelli chocolate square. It’s a win-win because my stomach and my sweet tooth are both satisfied. 🙂 This salad looks fab. Definitely something I’ll switch up my egg whites/soup routine for!